1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to search engines, and more particularly to a search engine for a video recorder system that has enhanced presentation and searching capabilities.
2. Background of the Invention
Video recorders are devices that are used in conjunction with a television set to enhance the user's entertainment experience. A user watches an output device, such as a television set, while the video recorder, which is either attached to or incorporated within the output device, is used for such things, for example, as tuning to particular stations, recording the shows, playing back previously recorded shows, and searching for shows to watch now or schedule for recording later.
In the past, a user searched for shows using a magazine such as “TV Guide”. The user would scan through the pages of the magazine until the appropriate show was located and then would manually tune their television to that channel. More recently, a program guide was provided with analog cable. Instead of a magazine, a specific channel was dedicated to the program guide and similar to a magazine, pages of the program guide were displayed on the screen and the user watched the pages on the screen to find a show that the user could then tune to or schedule to record.
As digital cable became more common, a more interactive program guide (IPG) was provided. While not only displaying pages similar to a magazine, the user was able to provide input and actively search for shows, rather than passively wait for the appropriate page to appear on the screen. For instance, the user could move forward in time to see shows in the future and the user could move between channels as well. IPGs also gave the user the ability to select shows automatically for tuning or recording by providing input to the IPG.
Magazine and IPG searches are “timeslot based” meaning one can find shows based on the show's timeslot. If the show airs at 9:00 AM every Sunday, then the show is found in the magazine under the 9:00 AM timeslot on Sunday and likewise in the IPG. This creates a problem because oftentimes two or more entries of interest to a user are located a great distance apart spatially in a timeslot based grid. Take for example a user who wants to consider all shows where one of the characters is “Big Bird”. Such entries might be located, for instance, Monday through Friday at 10:00 AM on channel 5 when the show “Sesame Street” is aired, as well as on Sunday at 5:00 PM on channel 33, when “Sesame Street the Movie” is aired. In such a case, the only way the user could discover all of these entries is to scan through the entire timeslot based program guide for the entire week examining every entry. From the user's perspective, this is a problematic and overly time-consuming method of searching for shows.